Daily Account #14- Leavenworth, WA

5/12- the last stop on our field trip was the fine town of leavenworth. we drove into the town a little ways and came to a dry, open grassy and rocky area with boulders stacked to form a hill.

Lat: 47.589393016, Lon: -120.6752387994

it was really hot by this time. before we got out of the car, someone took the temperature and said it was 63 F, but it felt significantly hotter than that. it was also somewhat muggy, and there was little shade to hide under.

the beginning of this site was fairly barren with several smaller plants and dry grasses, with the dominant tree species being ponderosa pine. the pines were scattered over the landscape, not distributed evenly. some of the low-growing plants we saw were yarrow, balsam root (flowering, resembled sunflowers), saskatoon (which we also saw on the west side- flowering on both sides), chocolate lilies (which were beautiful, also flowering), wild peonies (which were fascinating, in how different they look from cultivated peonies you buy at the store), death camus, and further up in forested/shadier areas we also saw indian paintbrush and false solomon's seal.

the heat and dryness also seemed to be good habitat for reptiles, and there were a number of butterflies out as well. we were only able to catch one lizard, a western fence lizard, and i didn't see if any butterflies were caught while we were there.

the ponderosa pines characterized the bottom of the hill, but as we walked up further into the shadier forested areas there were actually mostly a mix of douglas firs, ocean spray, and some maples. climbing up the boulders, i also noticed a number of lichens growing on the rocks, but not sure what kinds.

species list:
Common Yarrow (Achillea millefolium)
common peony (Paeonia officinalis)
Ponderosa Pine (Pinus ponderosa)
Saskatoon (Amelanchier alnifolia)
Western Fence Lizard (Sceloporus occidentalis)
Indian paintbrush (Castilleja coccinea)
Chocolate lily (Fritillaria affinis)
False Solomon's Seal (Maianthemum racemosum)

Posted on June 3, 2012 04:50 PM by akumar